1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to carpet treating apparatus, and more particularly to a combination carpet vacuum, cleaning, and dyeing apparatus.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
A variety of machines have been developed for cleaning and dyeing carpets. True carpet cleaners such as the steam cleaners are dependent upon the available amperage in a typical building to generate steam. In many instances only 15 amps or less are available, which is insufficient to create steam.
Truck mounted cleaners having a gasoline or diesel power plant in a remote truck generate enormous heat, pressure, and vacuum. The truck mounted units are expensive, require great lengths of hose, and generate excessive heat which can set the carpet nap or damage the fiber.
Equipment used for dyeing carpet has included pesticide sprayers, paint guns, carpet shampooers, hand brushes, hot water extractors, or combinations thereof.
In order to perform satisfactory cleaning and dyeing operations, the carpet must first be dry vacuumed. Both operations require the introduction of liquid solution to the carpet surface, and the extraction of excess water. The cleaning operation requires high pressure at low volume while in the the dyeing operation, high pressure can cause detrimental overspray and even distribution of the liquid is paramount.
In either operation, mechanical action is required, but not well provided by the conventional methods. The scrub wand of truck mounted units and extractors depends upon the operators physical strength. Rotary scrubbers and buffers lay the carpet fiber flat thus forming a barrier to the cleaning and dyeing chemicals.
Both the cleaning and dyeing operations require the removal of excess liquids and occasionally a rinse or flushing step. The process is similar in cleaning and dyeing operations except for the spray tip location.
There are several patents which disclose various carpet cleaning and dyeing apparatus.
Olson, U.S. Pat. No. 1,198,373 discloses a process for dyeing rugs whereby a rug is supported upon a mat of metallic strips and dye is applied to its upper surface with a spray gun and then brushed with a broom to uniformly distribute the dye over the surface and force it into the nap. The dye is fixed by placing the rug in a drying chamber provided with dry steam where it remains for up to forty eight hours, then it is placed into a second chamber where wet steam is introduced to complete the fixing operation.
Longshore, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 2,149,453 discloses a vacuum scrubber machine which may be selectively operated with all of the weight on the brush, backwards and forwards and also laterally. The machine operates as a dry dust vacuum cleaner when moved laterally in one direction and then as a scrubber when moved laterally in the opposite direction, supplying its own suds, and by reversing the direction again, pick up the dirty lather and suds and deposit them in a tank carried by the machine. The vacuum mechanism may be removed from the rest of the machine to clean draperies and the like leaving the polishing machine intact for separate use.
Crener, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,639,939 discloses a combination floor polisher, scrubber, cleaner or sander. A shutter movable between a first position covers an opening in the air passageway of the suction cleaning component of the apparatus so that it will operate properly as a suction cleaner. In the first position, a mechanism for dispensing liquid wax from a container is rendered inoperable and a vessel for holding liquid detergent cannot be mounted on the apparatus. When the shutter is in its second position, the passageway is opened and the apparatus can not operate as a suction cleaner but the liquid wax dispenser is operable and the vessel for dispensing liquid detergent can be removably mounted on the apparatus.
Nayfa, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,761,987 discloses a floor cleaning and polishing machine comprising a housing supported on front and rear drive rollers. A front brush is positioned ahead of the front drive roller and a rear brush is positioned behind the rear drive roller. A supply tank for the working solution includes agitating and aerating means for creating a foam dispensed from a pressurized tank through a flow control gate, and applied to the floor ahead of the front brush. The drive rollers act as squeegees, and vacuum pickup nozzles adjacent each of the drive rollers pick up excess material from the floor surface which is collected in a collection tank on the housing.
The prior art in general, and none of these patents in particular, disclose the present combination carpet vacuum, cleaning, and dyeing apparatus.